Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy

One of the more annoying things about living with a food blogger is that they rarely make the same recipe twice. This is especially irksome when a dish is particularly fabulous, because the blogger’s poor family knows that the chances of enjoying it again are virtually nil. But hey, I’m not heartless. I realize that there are certain dishes that are favorites and beg to be made again – like these killer candied sweet potatoes. They are absolutely to die for! That’s why I always include them on my Thanksgiving menu - and you should too.

The original recipe for this dish was given to me by my mother. It was one of her Thanksgiving specialties when I was growing up. She only made them once a year, and believe me, they were worth the wait! Earthy sweet potatoes are bathed in a pool of rich, gooey brown sugar syrup and baked until meltingly soft and caramelized. Then, they’re topped with marshmallows and popped back in the oven just long enough for the marshmallows to puff up like crazy and get all browned and toasty. It’s like eating candy for dinner. Oooooh! I get verklempt just thinking about it!

I’ve tried making this dish a couple of different ways, and I’ve found that it is best to partially cook the sweet potatoes before adding the syrup. You can either boil, steam or bake them for about fifteen minutes or so. I prefer baking the potatoes first because that leaves one less pot for me to wash, and I’m all about efficiency. Also, there’s less risk of the potatoes falling apart that way. It doesn’t matter which way you choose. You really just want to reduce the “candying” time so that the syrup doesn’t burn.

While I almost always use both light and dark corn syrup to make this dish, I have tried it with maple syrup instead of the dark corn syrup. It is really delicious that way too. In my experience, the syrup doesn’t get quite as thick, but the maple flavor is really wonderful. One year, I also added some chopped pecans to the syrup, for a little crunch. I liked it and would definitely do it again.

Woo Hoo! Look at those marshmallows puff! My salivary glands are in overdrive right now just looking at them!

I have to tell you that while I love sweet potatoes in any way, shape or form, these are something special. Maybe it’s because they conjure up lots of sweet memories of Thanksgivings past for me. Or maybe, it’s from the anticipation of waiting a whole year to eat them. Whatever the reason, Thanksgiving at my house just wouldn’t be the same without my mom’s candied sweet potatoes.